


Portal After Portal After Portal

by HogwartsToAlexandria



Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Abusive Father, Abusive Thanos, Alternate Universe - Human Nebula Dimension Hops, Angst, Dimension Travel, F/F, Hopeful Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Meeting Alternate Selves, Nebula Gets a Hug, Nebula Needs a Hug, Nebula is not a Robot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-08
Updated: 2020-09-08
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:20:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26365573
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HogwartsToAlexandria/pseuds/HogwartsToAlexandria
Summary: Nebula did not think stepping through the glowing yellow circle that had appeared in the living room of her NYC one-bedroom apartment was such a daring move.Only, it took her places she didn't even think existed.
Relationships: Nebula/Nebula (Marvel)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 9
Collections: We die afen and afen





	Portal After Portal After Portal

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ElasticElla](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElasticElla/gifts).



> Heeey dear recip! I really hope you like this wee fic as I had fun writing it 💙

Dimension hopping was a thing. 

It was a thing Nebula would have rather not discovered. At least at first. Before she made it her life because it turned out not every version of herself was as free of Thanos as she was. Putting her father behind bars the minute she got her badge was still, to this day and after years and years of working for the Bureau, her greatest achievement. 

Abusive assholes deserved life imprisonment. And thus he had it coming. 

Dimension hopping? Was not part of Nebula's plan to live a peaceful life kicking ass and going home alone to watch the gayest shows she could find whilst she stayed determinedly single. 

But what can you do when a portal is opened right into your living-room? She had never been known to stay out of trouble. She didn't ask for it, but she was also curious. 

She might have been more careful on that one though. 

Took a while to realize she was in a different dimension too. It was  _ not _ the first item on the list of possible places she'd ended up in. Not even the twentieth. 

Until another portal took her further. And yet another. And every time, she found herself face to face with someone who looked exactly like her. Every time, the portals took her to  _ herself _ , only different. 

There had been the Nebula with the tattoos all over her who had almost chopped her into pieces when she had appeared in her motorcycle shop and that Nebula's version of Thanos had risen behind her looking equally ready to kill her. 

There had been the girl with the mechanical dragon and the fire-spitting Thanos who had thought she was the emissary of her mortal enemy. 

There had been the Nebula with all the computers who looked like she could take on Tony from the IT department any day. 

Many, many versions of herself who all somehow thought she meant to harm them, or worse. It made sense really, given her own reactions to strangers and history of shitty people trying to bullshit their ways into her life. 

But this was different. This Nebula was different. This Nebula? Was blue. She had metal parts up to her face and her eyes? Her eyes were dark enough to fill Nebula with a cold dread at first. She was the first to look like she would truly kill her without asking questions if Nebula stayed even a second longer in her presence. 

Until Dark-Eyes stepped closer that is. Until she could see Nebula better, and then her eyes, but her entire stance really, widened and she froze into place. 

"I mean no harm." Nebula had whispered rapidly, glad for the reprieve the other woman's shock granted her. "I know this is unsettling, but I really do not mean any harm." 

The silence was deafening. It made all sorts of contradictory signals run down Nebula's spine — both shards of glass piercing through her skin and ripples of heat like flames licking her limbs as dread and compassion hit her in equal amounts. The fear she could see in Dark-Eyes' expression was so grand, she could imagine a thousand reason for it, but something told her the metal plate that ran up the side of this Nebula's face was another heartbreaking story to join all the others she had heard from one dimension to the next, all with the same perpetrator. 

"Who are you?" The woman asked, her voice barely loud enough to be heard, shock still evident in the way the question came out all shaky and like she had forced herself to formulate it. 

"I'm you. Only, different." Nebula answered, a shitty answer, yet her favorite of all the ones she'd been able to come up since the mad portalling had started. 

Pain. A flash of it, yet abysmal, crossed Dark-Eyes' entire stance, like she'd been hit, both inside and out, and before Nebula could think about it more clearly, she was rushing to her and catching her before she fell to the ground. Fainting had happened before. But this, once again, was wholly different. It was the woman's strengths leaving her from one second to the next, and when she sagged against her instead of sending her flying across the room (spaceship deck??), the smallest of whimpers leaving her, all Nebula could do was close her arms around her. 

Dark-Eyes did not move, or push her away, for long, very long, and unsettling, minutes. Nebula held her, and tried not to let her mind wander in conjectures. She tried to invoke happy memories, but even in her own life, all she really had were okay ones, peaceful enough ones, nothing to jump in place about, yet she felt sure in this instant, that in all of her life, this Nebula could not say she had even any of those. 

She felt too broken. And too dusty under Nebula's touch. 

"Help me." Dark-Eyes pleaded when she finally pulled her head off Nebula's shoulder, yet stayed close enough that Nebula had to focus very hard not to go cross-eyed looking at her. She looked so desperate, sounded so devastated and alone,  _ "Please help me."  _


End file.
